THE Tembari Children's Care (TCC) Inc is a day care facility at ATS Oro Settlement, 7-Mile, outside of Port Moresby, PNG. To date, it takes care of more than 200 former street children - orphans, abandoned and the unfortunate - by serving them meals twice a day, and providing them early education. Assistance - food and money - is sent by supporters who find merit in the services we provide to these children. At The Center, they are family. For all of these, we need support that is sustainable.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Tembari preschool graduates 28 children

Tembari preschoolers play with their Christmas toys inside their classroom on Saturday.

By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZA Friend of Tembari Children

THE Tembari Children Care (TCC) preschool held its school closing up presentation last Friday, in which 28 children graduated to move up as Grade 1 pupils.

It was an event witnessed by many parents from the settlement community with children at Tembari preschool facility which provides early education to about 60 children.

Of these, 45 are direct beneficiaries of The Center while the rest are beneficiaries of Digicel Foundation’s educational assistance to the settlement community.

In a remark highlighting the graduation, Penny Sagembo, co-founder of TCC, told the parents that they should strive hard to invest in the education of their children.

She stressed that “we are now living in a modern world where education of all children should be the main focus of every family”.

Penny said: “Papua New Guinea is modernizing and the cultural baggage that only the boys in the family should get education should finally be laid to rest.

“All girls in the family should attend school because like boys, they are also the future of PNG.”

Penny said Papua New Guinean women are gradually taking over a number of jobs at the work place, whether at the executive levels or at the ranks of labor.

“Education should be a must for all and Tembari is working hard for its beneficiary children to get the needed basic education despite our expected difficulties during school year 2011 in finding funds to pay for their school fees.”

This school year, there are 42 Tembari schoolchildren in 11 primary schools around Port Moresby whose fees have been paid for by WeCaRe! foundation.

By school year 2011, Tembari expects to have about 50 schoolchildren in the primary, which could cost up to K10,000, an amount TCC could ill-afford to pay.

WeCaRe! gets its grants from Digicel Foundation and this year, it received close to K300,000 to pay for school fees of orphans and abandoned children from all over the National Capital District.

Digicel Foundation aims to help this group of children by providing them opportunities to get an education.

The foundation is the charitable arm of cell phone provider Digicel PNG.

THE BLOGGER

ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ, A Friend of Tembari Children. Blogger APH came to Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, in 1993 to join The National newspaper as one of its pioneering journalists. Working as Executive Sub Editor, he has remained with the daily, now the country’s No. 1 newspaper, up to these days. He has been a journalist since his university days in Manila back in the late 60s. APH’s involvement with the Tembari children began in January 2010 after he discovered them at a Christmas party for the city’s 500 unfortunate children held at the Botanical Garden in Port Moresby. That day, he was chasing a story for The National, which happened to be that of the unfortunate children in the city. His self-appointed job for Tembari children composed of orphaned, abandoned, neglected and unfortunate children is to look for people and groups who could provide them food, money, health services and facilities necessary to create positive changes in their lives. This job is difficult, but what the heck …!

(Our sponsored Saturday lunch for the 200 Tembari kids costs only K250.00 per sponsor (we usually have two), which covers a special meat (fish or chicken) dish, veggies, steamed rice and cordial drink. The Saturday lunch needs at least two sponsors. Some had given more, allowing us to give the kids a generous heap of the day’s lunch. A rare bonus to the sponsors, along with the bricks they earn each time, is that I personally cook the dish, giving it a personal touch. And as they earn a brick, each of our benefactors also earn a passage into the heart of the Tembari kids, which is also a prepaid ticket to Heaven.)